July 9th

Utah!

We have headed north to Utah!  Well, first we had a stay over in Flagstaff, AZ as the hose/boot came off the turbo again.  We stayed at the KOA for a night and the local ford dealer squeezed us in.  While we were waiting we went to see Despicable Me 2.  At least the kids were occupied while I worried over whether we were going to eventually make it over the rockies.

I do have two major tips for those who may be considering traveling this way.  One is to check to find out about road closures and the second is to check for tunnel clearance.  Can’t imagine how I learned the hard way?  Well, let me tell ya about it.

Flagstaff, AZ

Just before we left Flagstaff I struck up a conversation with my “neighbor” about his 5th wheel trailer.  He then asked if I was going to Page as there is a detour.  I mentioned how I was just following my gps and wasn’t sure which way I would be heading.  I am very happy I spoke with him as we did end up going through Page and we had a 2+ hour detour.  The plus is due to the construction on the road in addition to the detour.  What was supposed to be a 5 hour trip plus gas and bathroom breaks turned into a 8 hour day.

Tunnels

Tunnels, let me tell you about tunnels.  Your best bet is to get a Motor Carriers road atlas.  This will show you low clearance bridges and tunnels.  Something I wasn’t aware of until a friend in San Antonio mentioned it to me and I forgot to stop and pick up.  I was approaching the entrance to Zion National Park and I suddenly saw signs stating that there are two tunnels both with height restrictions.  Luckily we are 11ft in height and easily cleared the first one.  The second one was the problem.  We had to pay an additional charge to enter the park.  This was beyond our yearly National Park card.  This charge is due to their needing to stop the two way traffic through the second tunnel so we could drive down the middle of the tunnel.  Kids loved this and the drive through both tunnels.

Zion

The road through Zion is twisty and steep.  It’s also difficult because I wanted to stop and take pictures but we had such a long day, I also wanted to get to the trailer park.  Many of the pictures you will see have been taken from the car so expect a lot of reflections.  Brian was pretty tuned into the park and all the twists in the road and how amazing the park is.  Sean had to be dragged away from his game to look out the window.  It helped to mention how similar the road is to several scenes in Cars.

We stayed at Zion River Resort RV Park and Campground.  I think Brian would have stayed here all summer.  We never used the pool although it looked amazing.  Brian and Sean both enjoyed their first experience in a river!  Both boys were very careful walking in the river as you never know where it can be slick.  Sean especially loved sitting in a chair in the shallow areas.  Brian managed to get Sean to lay back in the shallow water.  He seems to finally be getting over some of his fear from his earlier fright in Tyler, TX.

Mining

We originally were supposed to drive back through Zion, but with 106 heat we decided to get some groceries, visit the small town nearby (very cute), do some gem mining at the RV store and play in the river.  Gem mining is what the boys seem to love the best.